On August 11, Swiss endurance swimmer Noam Yaron waded into the Mediterranean Sea at Calvi, Corsica, to swim 180km to Monaco. He was aiming to break the world record for the longest wetsuit swim ever. He succeeded, though he fell two heartbreaking kilometers short of Monaco.
His route took him across the Pelagos Sanctuary, the Mediterranean Sea’s largest protected area. Two safety boats flanked him throughout the swim. One stayed at his side and towing a swim line to help him stay on course. The other was slightly behind him.
Yaron started well, covering 16km in the first five hours — an elite pace. This, despite almost immediate encounters with jellyfish. Though his wetsuit shielded most of his body, the few exposed patches of skin — mainly, his face and hands — were immediately stung.
Photo: Noam Yaron
The scariest night of his life
After 15 hours, he had covered 43km. The first night proved so terrifying that he later called it “the scariest night of my life.” At night, the safety boat let out an illuminated swim line. The team thinks this might have attracted the marine life. What seemed like thousands of jellyfish rose from the depths and stung him repeatedly on his face.
Despite this, there was one moment of pure joy: a baby dolphin almost swam into him and played near the swim line.
Throughout the second day and into the third, Yaron struggled with the heat and his growing fatigue. On August 13, he passed 103km, the farthest the Swiss athlete had ever swum. Here, his previous unsuccessful attempt at the same route ended a year earlier, when rough seas forced him to abandon the effort.
This time, however, conditions were better. The wind hovered around 10 knots, the sea was choppy but manageable, and Yaron pressed on.
Hallucinations begin
By now, the fatigue was really beginning to take its toll, and it was becoming ever more noticeable to his safety team. After 48 hours in the water, he started to hallucinate, seeing castles rising from the sea and hearing voices in his head. He even resorted to taking micro-naps, using the swim line to help keep him afloat in the water.
By August 14, he had reached 165km and said at this point he was “suffering like never before.” At one point, he expected to reach Monaco by 11 pm that day, but his pace had slowed dramatically. In the final stretch, he covered barely two kilometers in 10 hours. His body had been pushed to its absolute limit; he was disoriented and near-hypothermic, despite the wetsuit.
Photo: Noam Yaron
After 102 hours and 24 minutes in the sea, having swum an extraordinary 191km, 11km more than planned, Yaron was pulled from the water just two kilometers shy of his Monaco finish line.
Heartbreakingly close
The decision was taken out of necessity. The salt water had swollen his mouth and tongue so severely that he was struggling to breathe and could no longer eat. Friction between his wetsuit and the salt on his skin had left 10 to 15 per cent of his body covered in second-degree burns. He was rushed to the hospital, where he remained for nine days. His team shared only brief updates in the days that followed, saying he was recovering, that his voice would return in time, and that despite the ordeal, his condition was improving.
This swim was the culmination of years of swimming challenges and preparation. In 2021, he crossed Lake Geneva in 19 hours and 53 minutes. A year later, he swam Switzerland’s five largest lakes back-to-back in 60 hours and 40 minutes, cementing his reputation in endurance open water swimming. Though he did not complete his swim as planned, those final two kilometers do not take away from the huge achievement of swimming for five days and four nights across the Mediterranean.
